I'm an American traveling to Britain this May for the first time. I've been an avid EVO reader since almost the beginning and have always envied the great roads you have here in the UK. My lady and I would really like to rent something fun for a week to try and retrace some of your test routes around Wales/Scotland. The problem is that it seems my choice is either a mundane rental car from the airport (at least they're manual there) or wildly overpriced exotica from specialty prestige rental companies. Are there any other options that I'm not aware of? Ideally I'm thinking of something like a Renaultsport, Mazda MX-5 or the like.

Depends how much you want to spend: Caterhams are around £200/day, but if you have a twisty road ANY hire car will be decent. There are no really crappy hire cars in the UK like there are in America with your crappy Chevy Cruzes and the like. I rented an 3cylindered Toyota Aygo to go to Goodwood and it was the most fun I've ever had in a car.

However, there are Fiat 500 Abarths aplenty and even the standard 500 should suffice for driving fun on most roads.

Edit: Google is your friend. Look up "Fiat 500 Abarth hire Scotland" or wherever you are going + car of your choice and see what comes up

I love those rental caterhams - that is almost what I'm looking for - but the prices are still pretty steep! Maybe it's the conversion rate that's turning me off. Here in the states we have a car-sharing website called RelayRides where you can rent other peoples' cars. The prices are much, much cheaper. Would love to find something like that.

As for the old MX-5, I already have one! I love it to death, but I don't think I'm ready to drop $150/day to use one there. Maybe $75?

There are different car rental companies in UK, you can also hire car from airport as there are also many car rental companies. Once I have hire car from LU car rentals. They have all type of cars and vans and all cars are insured and come with breakdown cover when travelling outside the UK.

Hi Ih,
Did you manage to find any ways to hire something interesting at a reasonable cost?
I'm hoping to head back to Scotland later this year and it would be nice to find if it is possible to hire something 'EVO' for the trip.
Though the comment about any hire car on a good road is fun, rings true. I had an Audi A3 last trip back and around the Scottish Borders territory it was joyful.

Hi Ih,
Did you manage to find any ways to hire something interesting at a reasonable cost?
I'm hoping to head back to Scotland later this year and it would be nice to find if it is possible to hire something 'EVO' for the trip.
Though the comment about any hire car on a good road is fun, rings true. I had an Audi A3 last trip back and around the Scottish Borders territory it was joyful.

Hi Ih,
Did you manage to find any ways to hire something interesting at a reasonable cost?
I'm hoping to head back to Scotland later this year and it would be nice to find if it is possible to hire something 'EVO' for the trip.
Though the comment about any hire car on a good road is fun, rings true. I had an Audi A3 last trip back and around the Scottish Borders territory it was joyful.

Thanks Mike,
Some great options there. The prices are pretty steep for a long hire, but a few days in an elise or caterham would be a treat.
Does everyone look sideways at MX-5 drivers in the UK? Or did I misunderstand the comment?
Here in NZ there doesn't seem to be and stigma to driving one, Audi TT's are another story.....